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Leighton’s winding career path leads him to AHL Hall of Fame

Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer


Eighteen pro seasons, trips to the waiver wire, playing in the Stanley Cup Final, battling injuries, going overseas, coming back to the AHL as a veteran and mentor.

And now, the American Hockey League Hall of Fame.

Michael Leighton, who played for 11 different NHL organizations in 13 separate AHL cities, piled up plenty of awards and lessons along the way. The road started with the Norfolk Admirals as a Chicago Blackhawks prospect in 2001-02, securing a spot on the AHL All-Rookie Team.

“It was a big learning curve,” said Leighton, who lived with a couple of teammates in Virginia Beach that season. “Sometimes it just takes time to build your game and build confidence and figure out your identity as a goalie. And I just did that over the years and throughout my career.

“It turned out OK.”

It certainly did. In all, Leighton logged 507 regular-season AHL games, seventh-most in league history among goaltenders. His 250 wins put him fifth all-time, and his 50 shutouts rank first, breaking a record held by Johnny Bower. He finished with a 2.38 goals-against average and .916 save percentage in net over an AHL career that had stops in Norfolk, Rochester, Portland, Philadelphia, Albany, Adirondack, Rockford, Charlotte, Syracuse, Chicago, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Ontario and Utica.

Leighton also played 111 NHL games for Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia and Carolina, his career peak coming in 2010 when he helped to take the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Final against the Blackhawks, the team that had drafted him 11 years earlier.

It was a ride, one that Leighton would have been happy to continue had his body allowed him. He was a workhorse from his first season on, playing 52 games for the Admirals as a rookie and crossing the 50-game mark two other times. He wanted the net, and his play and body allowed him to have it. It was only in the latter half of his career that his body began to deny him as he dealt with injuries and a bout of viral meningitis.

Now 43 years old and running the Michael Leighton Goalie Academy in Windsor, Ont., he is carrying those on- and off-ice lessons with him to mentor the next generation. He runs his own show yet still is able to pass those hockey and life lessons on to his students.

Lessons like a wild 2006-07 season in which he was claimed off waivers three times and traded once, making him part of five NHL organizations in less than 12 months. But it was that trade – a 2007 draft-day deal from Montreal to Carolina – that turned out to be the break that Leighton needed, even if he did spend most of the following campaign with Albany. He played a career-high 58 games in 2007-08 and won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Award as the league’s outstanding goaltender. He also had a memorable postseason, making headlines across hockey with a single-game record 98 saves in a five-overtime contest against Philadelphia.

By the following year, Leighton finally stuck in the NHL full-time with the Hurricanes as he and his growing family settled in North Carolina. But in 2009-10, the Hurricanes elected to bring in veteran Manny Legace, pushing Leighton out of the crease.

Another opportunity was fizzling on him, this time at age 28.

“I wouldn’t say it [angered] me, but it upset me, right?” Leighton admits. “I wanted that spot. They picked Manny over me, put me on waivers. That kind of burned in me a little bit.”

The Flyers needed help and claimed Leighton, getting themselves a goaltender with something to prove.

Leighton won eight of his first 10 appearances for Philadelphia.

“I went to Philly with a good attitude just thinking I might only be there for a week or two and then go play with the (Adirondack) Phantoms,” Leighton continued. “They gave me an opportunity when (Brian) Boucher got hurt, and just the confidence the team had in me, and the players, we just clicked.

“I played a bunch of games in a row, was feeling good, and the team was playing well. There was no pressure on me because we were out of a playoff spot by far. Just got in a little rhythm and was playing good, and it all clicked together.”

That April the Flyers qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in their final regular-season game. After defeating New Jersey in the first round, they fell behind three games to none against Boston in their second-round series. With Boucher injured, Leighton posted a shutout in Game 5, fended off the Bruins in Game 6, and then held the Flyers in long enough to take a 4-3 comeback win in Game 7. They took care of Montreal in the Eastern Conference Final to set up a match-up with the Blackhawks.

The Flyers’ run eventually ended in overtime of Game 6, but Leighton got a chance to savor an experience that even most NHL veteran netminders never do.

“When you go to a game,” Leighton said, “where everyone stands up the whole game, it’s pretty crazy, right? Around town everyone had Flyers flags, and it was just so long since they had won. Everyone in the city knew who you were and was rooting for us. We lost, and it was disappointing, but the fans were still great, and they still talk about that run to this day.”

After that spring run in Philadelphia, though, he played only one game the next season for the Flyers. A herniated disc at training camp sidelined him. The second half of his career largely was spent in the AHL. A high-ankle sprain, back surgery and hip surgery in the span of a year and a half slowed a lot of his career momentum. He got stuck behind Ilya Bryzgalov in Philadelphia and then Sergei Bobrovsky in Columbus. Those are the breaks that come with a career in hockey.

After one season in the Kontinental Hockey League, Leighton returned to the AHL in 2014 and filled an invaluable role as a mentor for young goaltender and a reliable call-up option. He worked with the likes of Alex Nedeljkovic, Tristan Jarry, Casey DeSmith and Connor Ingram on their way to the NHL.

Leighton finished his career with stops in Syracuse, Chicago, Wilkes-Barre, Ontario and Utica over his final two seasons. The wear and tear had taken a toll. His family had stayed back in LaSalle, Ontario. In the end, as driven and as much of a workhorse as he was, Leighton chose family.

“It was just time to call it quits,” Leighton said. “But realistically, I felt game-wise I could have kept playing in the AHL for another two or three years.”

He was able to finish his career with plenty of memories and an iron-clad reputation as the ultimate pro.

“I think my mindset was I always wanted to play hockey for a living and being sent to the AHL wasn’t the worst thing for me,” Leighton said. “There’s obviously a reason for it. I had to either change the way I played or do things better, and so every time I got sent down, I took it as a challenge. I went down and didn’t accept staying there. My goal was to play in the NHL.

“I would go down and work hard, do the right things, and have a good attitude that I eventually want to get back to the NHL, and it worked.”

On that ride, Leighton – and his family, it must be noted – went through five trades, four waiver claims, and five times signing as a free agent. But he always left a good impression, even coming back for return stints with the Philadelphia, Carolina and Chicago organizations. It was a stressful, far-flung, uncertain lifestyle at times, but one that was worth it.

But so is this more stable post-playing life. Leighton spent parts of three seasons as a goaltending coach with Windsor of the Ontario Hockey League, the same club that he had played for as a teenager more than 20 years earlier. And after the Leighton family winding through all of those cities, now they have a stable home base.

He continues to be involved in hockey, while giving his wife Jennifer, their kids Ella, Annalise and Theodore, and, frankly, himself, the stable life that they battled to obtain for so long.

“I’m at home now,” Leighton said. “I’m with my kids. I’m coaching them, and I’m with them all the time, and that is what it’s all about for me right now – being with my family.”